Phytohemagglutinin Transformation and Circulating Lymphocyte Subpopulations in Insulin-dependent Diabetic Patients

Abstract

The lymphocyte transformation response to the mitogen phytohemagglutinin (PHA) was determined in forty well controlled insulin-dependent diabetics, forty matched normal subjects and fourteen poorly controlled insulin-dependent diabetics. There was no significant difference in the PHA responses of normal subjects and well controlled diabetics, but poorly controlled diabetics showed a marked depression of lymphocyte transformation.

Peripheral blood T and B lymphocyte subpopulations were also measured in fifteen normal subjects, fifteen well controlled diabetics and ten poorly controlled diabetics. The results showed no significant difference between normal and diabetic subjects, whether well or poorly controlled.

The depressed PHA response in poorly controlled diabetics would seem to reflect inadequately corrected metabolic disturbance rather than an inherent, genetically determined immunologic abnormality.